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Turkish Airlines - Complaint regarding misbehaviour of Turkish Airline staff and mental harassment

Anand Sharma filed complaint against Turkish Airlines on Dec 30, 2023

I tried to reach out to Turkish airlines through their feedback system but without success. Hence, I’m forced to use this route as a last resort to file a complaint.
On **th June ****, me and my parents travelled from Izmir to Dubai via Ankara. At Izmir Airport, I was given the boarding pass of my flight from Izmir to Ankara but not from Ankara to Dubai even though my luggage was booked till Dubai. This contrasted with the general practice of providing boarding passes for connecting flights at the source location itself. Even after much pursuance in getting boarding pass for flight from Ankara to Dubai and highlighting the short layover period (** min.) at Ankara airport, the Turkish Airline representative was not able to provide a reasonable explanation for not giving the boarding pass and said that we could get the boarding pass at Ankara airport departure terminal itself.
After landing at Ankara airport at **:** PM, I proceeded to get the boarding pass for the Ankara-Dubai flight from the airline staff at the International Departure terminal. The staff member in question, whose name I unfortunately did not manage to obtain, started asking us about our Visa for Dubai. When we said that we will get the visa on arrival at Dubai airport as we had a valid USA visa, he started taking pictures of our USA visa and sent them over through WhatsApp to someone. Mindful of the time left, me and my parents requested him to provide us with the boarding passes for our flight. The staff member ignored us and started speaking on his phone.
All our requests to provide boarding passes fell on deaf ears. The staff member started misbehaving with us, failing to provide any reason for not providing boarding passes even though our seats were booked and repeatedly said “Where is your confirmation?” and “Where is your boarding pass?”. He then continued to take photos of passports (this time of both, front page and USA visa) and sending them over through WhatsApp. In this whole process, he wasted approx. ** min. of our time. I even tried to use Google Translate to translate English to Turkish and somehow make this person understand the urgency of providing boarding passes, but it was of no use.
My parents, both senior citizens in their **s, started getting really anxious and the thought of missing our flight and getting stranded in an unknown city at night without any hotel booking increased their anxiety. They both have hypertension problems, and this incident gave my mother a panic attack at the terminal itself, sweating and trembling profusely.
As I saw the last call for boarding on the screens, me and my father started asking other people nearby for help. Seeing us the police present at the terminal intervened and it’s only then that the staff member took the matter seriously. With the police standing monitoring him closely, the staff member provided the boarding passes in the next * min. After this me and my parents ran to the boarding gate and somehow were able to catch the flight. It was a struggle especially for my mother as she has arthritis and knee pain issues.
This whole experience can be checked and verified through camera recordings between **th June **:** PM and **th June **:** AM of the international departure terminal of Ankara Airport.
Having travelled to close to ** countries in my life, this was a horrifying experience. My mother was lying in bed for most of her stay in Dubai because of the panic attack she had at Ankara airport and hence, we were not able to enjoy our stay in Dubai. I asked the staff member his name which he refused to tell so I was forced to take a picture of him. I realise taking a picture of someone without his/her consent isn’t appropriate, but I had to have some reference of him so as to register a complaint.
All this could have been avoided if and only the staff member at Ankara airport listened to us and understood our concern. He was dismissive, utterly disrespectful and responded with impatience and a lack of empathy. Also, it surprises me how a person who doesn’t understand simple English (or was pretending to not do so) is positioned at an international departure terminal.
I kindly request that you take this matter seriously and conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. It is crucial that appropriate action is taken to address this issue, ensuring that such incidents do not recur in the future.
Considering this unpleasant experience, I would appreciate:
*. a formal apology from your airline.
*. action against the staff member at Ankara airport for misbehaviour and poor customer service. Also, the staff member at Izmir airport should be questioned for inability to provide boarding pass for connecting flights.
*. Ensure our passport details are deleted from the staff member’s phone and the person to whom he shared the details. It is illegal to take photos of one’s passport and this is an extremely serious matter as it can result in identity theft and someone can commit fraud using passport and visa details.
*. Provide adequate compensation for our Dubai trip where we could explore as my mother was bed ridden and as a gesture of goodwill for the mental agony and harassment endured by me and my parents
*. Improve training of your airline staff as this incident has undoubtedly tarnished the reputation of your airline in my eyes.

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Complaint Status

Resolution Demanded:

Apology letter from company

Damages for loss and agony

Turkish Airlines

2

Total Complaints

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Total Resolved

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